F 22 
.H38 





Class. 
Book. 



REMARKS 



r O P 11 A M CELEBRATION 



nine Ibtorinil <§0cictn; 



READ P.EFDEE THE AMERICAN ANTIQTJARTAN SOCIETY 



ApitiL 20, 1805. 



By S. F. haven. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
18G5. 



34518 




^ O v^ 



POPHAM CELEBRATION. 



Among the books recently received is a volume of 
five hundred and twelve pages, bearing this title, 
" Memorial Volume of the Popham Celebration, 
August 29, 1862, commemorative of the Planting of 
the Popham Colony on the Peninsula of Sabino, 
August 19, O.S., 1607, estabhshing the Title of Eng- 
land to the Continent." 

It is the record of an effort on the part of the His- 
torical Society of Maine to substantiate certain new 
views relating to the possession and settlement of this 
continent ; and to perpetuate their recognition by the 
most formal and solemn proceedings, and by durable 
monuments and inscriptions. 

It may be expected that other Historical Societies, 
and especially the American Antiquarian Society, will 
give to these claims so much attention as shall be 
necessary to determine how far they are entitled to 
general acceptance. 

The ceremonies described in the " Memorial Vol- 
ume" were of the most elaborate and impressive 



" Til Moinoiy of 

Who lirst, from the vshores of England, 

rouniknl !V*Ci>lony in New England, 

Angnst, KtOT. 

lie brought into those wilds 

English laws and learning. 

And the faith and the t'hnreh of Christ." 

'• This l\>rt." doflaros the orator. '' so conspicuously 
placed, bcarini; these appropriate testimonials, thus 
becomes a tittim;- monument to perpetuate the events 
ot' the (\uly history of New England, and transmit to 
future times the memory of those illustrious men 
who laid the fi>uudatiou of English colonies in 
America. " 

These statements, as may be supposed, were re- 
peated in various forms, and enlarged upon, in the 
coiuse of the proceedings recorded in the '' Memorial 
Volume." 

At the tinu^ appointed for the celebration, the mar- 
shal o( the day annoiuiced the purpose and plan of 
the ceremonies, as intended to recall and illustrate the 
events of the past, and to assign to ^[aine her true 
liistoric position. 

The Bishop of the Diocese then proceeded to the 
religious duties of the occasion ; using, we are told, as 
nearlv as the changed circumstances o( the case 
w ould allow. •• the same services as were employed by 
the colonists in their solemnities on the day com- 
memorated, under the guidance of their chaplain, the 
Eev. Kiehard Sevmour." 



These services, from the Episcopal Prayer-book, 
Avere followed by a narrative of historical events by 
the President of the Historical Society. 

The " Memorial Stone " was then rolled forward 
into view, — a mass of granite weighing six tons, and 
showing a front of six feet by four ; and the President 
of Bowdoin College solicited the consent of the State 
and General Government to its being placed in the 
wall of the fort, " in memory of the colony which 
was established there two hundred and fifty-five years 
ago," — " that noble company of one hundred and 
twenty colonists who established themselves at the 
mouth of the Sagadahoc." 

Hon. Abner Coburn responded on behalf of tlic 
Governor of the State ; and Captain Casey, of the 
United-States Bureau of Engineers, gave the assent of 
the President, acting through the Secretary of War. 
The President of the College next called upon the 
Freemasons to cause the stone to be erected accord- 
ing to the ancient rites of their Order. 

After these solemnities, the orator of the day de- 
livered his address ; which was followed by a series of 
sentiments and speeches, and the reading of letters, at 
the table. 

The toasts had been previously printed, and were 
published and circulated beforehand, with the pro- 
gramme of the exercises ; having been framed with 
deliberation, and carefully adjusted to the purposes of 
the occasion. Among the earliest were these : — 



8 



"The lOlh of August (O.S.), 1007, — over luomorable as the 
(lay that wituossotl tho consuinniatloii of the title of Knglaud to 
the Now ^Vol•lll," 

''The memory of George I'opham, who led hither the lirst 
Juiglish Colouy, became the head of its goveniiuent, »S:c., and letl 
his bones to mingle with the soil," &c. 

" ISir John l\>phani, — mider the shadow of whose great name 
was laid the foundation of the colossal Empire of the New 
AVorld." 

Far down, below the salt, we liiul [the twenty-sev- 
eiitli toast] — 

"Plymouth riautation, — founded by men of strong faith, of 
earnest piety. Educated under the teachings of Kobiusou and 
Brewster at Leydeu, they were litted to become pioneers in the 
new movement towards civil and religious liberty." 

Two steps farther down, we have — 

"The Colony of Massachusetts Bay, — founded, in 1G29, by 
men of tlie same uucouquerable will as those that brought royalty 
to the block, and discarded prescription as heresy. Their de- 
scendants have ever shown a taithful adherence to the doctrine of 
''Cni/orniih/.'"* 

The address of the orator of the day is an endeavor 
to maintain, aro:umentativelv and rhetoricallv, the 
points assumed in the preceding quotations. It con- 
tains many quite extraordinary historical statements, 
Avhich are not necessary to be reproduced here, as 

* Ex-Governor Washburn, of Massachusetts, was called upon to respond 
to tliis toast ; and. after good-uatur'edly iutimating his siu"prise at some of the 
points which had been assimicd, confessed that he had been \itterly disarmed 
by the courtesies he liad shared, and would no longer protest against any 
thing : and if anybody were to insist that Xoah's Ark landed on one of 
those lulls, and would get up a celebration like that to commemorate it, he 
would volunteer to come and take a part in it. without doubting it was true. 



9 

they have but a remote bearing on the principal ques- 
tions. It begins thus : — 

" We commciuorate to-day the great event of American liis- 
tory. We are assembled on the spot that witnessed the first 
formal act of possession of New England by a British colony, 
under the authority of a Royal Charter. We have come here, on 
the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of that event, to rejoice 
in the manifold blessings that have tlowed to us from that act ; to 
place on record a testimonial of our appreciation of that day's 
work ; and to transmit to future generations an expression of our 
regard for the illustrious men who laid the foundation of England's 
title to the Continent, and gave a new direction to the history of 
the world." 

The argument is, in brief, as follows : — 

"The question Europeans were called upon to solve at tlie 
commencement of the seventeenth century was, who should here- 
after occupy and possess the temperate zone of the New World ? 
All previous explorations were preliminary eiForts to this object ; 
but the question remained open and undecided, 

" England, practically abandoning all claims from the discover- 
ies of Cabot on the Atlantic, and Drake on the Pacific, laid down, 
in 1580, the broad doctrine, that prescription without occupation 
was of no avail ; that possession of the country was essential to 
the maintenance of title. 

" The possession of Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
was abandoned on his loss at sea. 

"Of the two colonies sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, one 
returned ; the other perished in the country, leaving no trace of 
its history. 

"Thus, at the period of Elizabeth's death in 1G03, England 
had not a colonial possession on the globe. 

" Charaplain accompanied Pont Grave to the St. Lawrence in 
1G03. On his return to France, he found Acadia granted by the 
French monarch to De Mouts, under date of Nov. 8, 1G03, ex- 



10 



tending across tlie continent between the fortieth and forty-sixth 
degrees of nortli hititude. To make sure of the country, Cham- 
plain, Champdore, and L'Escarbot remained three and a half years. 
Returning to France in 1C07, they found the charter of De Moats 
revoked. 

" This short-sightedness of Henry of Navarre cost France the 
dominion of the New World. 

" For, in 1605, Gorges, associating with himself the Earl of 
Soutluvmpton, petitioned the king for a charter, which he obtained 
April 10, ICOG, gi'anting to George Popham and seven others" (it 
should be Sir Thomas Gates and seven others; Popham is the last 
named) " the Continent of North America, from the tliirty-fourth 
to the forty-hfth degrees of north latitude. 

" This charter is the basis on which rests the title of our race 
to the New World. 

" The venerable Sir John Popham became the patron of the 
company, . . . though his name was not in the charter, or included 
among the council. 

" Two unsuccessful attempts at planting a colony Avere made in 
IGOG. On the 31st of May, 1G07, the first colony to New Eng- 
land sailed from Plymouth for the Sagadalioc, in two ships, the 
'Gift of God,' George Popham commander, and the 'Mary and 
John,' commanded by Raleigh Gilbert, on board which ships 
Avere one hundred and twenty persons for planters. On the lOth 
of August, all went on shore at the month of the river, where 
they had a sermon from their preacher ; the President's commis- 
sion was read, with the patent, and the laws to be observed ; and 
George Popham was nominated President, &c. 

" Thus commenced the first occupation and settlement of New 
England. From August 10 (O.S.), 1607, the title of England to 
the NcAV World w^as maintained. 

" It is well known, that the Popham Colony, or a portion of 
them, returned to England in 1608 ; but this possession proved 
sufficient to establish the title. The revocation of the charter of 
De Monts gave priority to the grant of King James, covering the 
same territory ; and this formal act of possession W'as ever after 
upheld by an assertion of the title by Gorges." 



11 

The orator repeats, that England stoutly mauitaincd, 
that, without possession, there was no valid title to a 
newly-discovered country. " This view," he says, " is 
overlooked by Puritan writers, and those who follow 
their authority." lie does not tell us how it hap- 
pened, if priority of discovery by the Cabots, and 
formal acts of possession by Gilbert, Gosnold, and 
others, established no rights, the British Government 
could convey any title, by charter, to a country already 
occupied by the subjects of other powers. 

The only allusions to the colony of Gosnold and 
the settlement of Jamestown are where he claims 
that Gorges was concerned in the voyage of Gosnold, 
and in the following passages : — 

" It may be said, that, in giving this prominence to the occupa- 
tion of the country by the colony of Popham, we overlook other 
events of importance in establishing the English title, — the pos- 
session of the ELlisabeth Isles by Gosnold in 1G02, and the settle- 
ment of Jamestown, May 13, 1607, prior to the landing of the 
Popham colony at Sagadahoc. 

" In reference to the occupation of Elizabeth Isles by Gosnold, 
it is sufficient to say, that it was prior to the date of the Eoyal 
Charter, and consequently of no legal effect in establishing a title. 
As to the settlement of Jamestown, it was south of the fortieth 
parallel of latitude, and therefore did not come in conflict with the 
French king's prior charter to De Monts. 

" Had there been no P^nglish settlement or occupancy north of 
the fortieth parallel of latitude prior to IGIO, when Poutriucourt 
obtained a new grant of Acadia, the whole country north of that 
line must have fallen into the hands of the French." * 

* It is understood, that these paragraphs, referring to the colony of Gos- 
nold and the settlement of Jamestown, were inserted after the address was 
delivered. 



1'^ 

There is no sufficient opportunity here for a dis- 
cussion of these propositions ; but it may be instruc- 
tive to place beside them, in the briefest terms, a 
different statement, believed to be at least equally 
well sanctioned by the best historical evidence. 

It is due to the venerable and learned President 
of the Maine Historical Society to quote from his 
excellent remarks a passage which is overshadowed 
by the great mass of opposite sentiment expressed in 
the " Memorial Volume." Speaking of the Popham 
settlement, he says, " But, sir, the enterprise failed : 
death and the stars seemed against it ; and there were 
' no more speeches ' by the Northern Company, says 
Gorges, ' of settling any other plantation in those 
parts for a long time after.' They were in search of 
gain, and found it not in peopling a rude continent. 
It was essentially a commercial company : the princi- 
ple that moved it was adverse to generous action ; it 
required another sentiment, the religious element, to 
give patient endurance, indomitable resolution, and 
final success, as was signally vindicated in the re- 
nowned colony of the Pilgrims. The Northern Com- 
pany made no other attempt at colonization, until 
they obtained their charter of 1620. We must not 
claim too much for this unsuccessful attempt to peo- 
ple a continent, but regard it as one of the steps in 
the grand march of colonization." 

It could hardly be expected, that the learned Presi- 
dent would enter a more emphatic protest against 



13 

the extravagant claims which persons of less accurate 
information were disposed to advance, or that he 
would dwell upon circumstances not in harmony 
with the general spirit of the occasion ; but it may be 
permitted to others to say, in the cause of historical 
truth, and in accordance with the most authentic 
recorded testimony, — 

First, That the official act of possession, by Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, made in virtue of the 
original discovery by the Cabots, was of the most 
formal and perfect character. It was conducted with 
all prescribed ceremonies for such procedures, in 
the presence of representatives of every prominent 
antagonistic power, — the numerous merchants and 
masters of vessels engaged in the fisheries, — whose 
assent was signified by loud acclamations, by the 
acceptance of grants of land, and by consent to taxa- 
tion ; for the English had, before that time, been 
regarded as " lords of the harbors," and had exacted 
a tribute for protection aff"orded to the ships of other 
nations. So far from being abandoned on the death 
of Gilbert, the British sovereignty was enforced, two 
years later, by the seizure of Portuguese vessels, 
which had collected cargoes without a license ; and 
it is stated, that, about the year 1600, the English 
employed at Newfoundland, on land and water, quite 
ten thousand men and boys.* 



* Sabine's Report. 
3 



14 

Second^ That De Monts took possession of Acadia, 
not in his own name, but as lieutenant-general of the 
French king, on whose behalf he set up the arms 
and insignia of France. The revocation, alleged to 
be an abandonment or invalidation of the French 
title, was merely the withdrawal of certain exclusive 
privileges which had been granted to De Monts for 
ten years ; while the acts of possession and coloniza- 
tion were continued and enlarged by the French 
monarch. The respective rights of the English and 
French to the possession of New England or of 
Canada were not settled by a comparison of dates, 
or the construction of charters, but by the valor of 
the Massachusetts colony, the force of arms, and 
subsequent treaties. 

Thirds That the revival of plans of colonization, 
and their direction to New England, were the results 
of the voyage of Gosnold in 1602; when he came 
with a colony for settlement, and, having traversed 
the coast of Maine, built a fort, and planted grain at 
Cuttyhunk, on the south shore of Massachusetts. 
From the fear of inadequate supplies, on the part of 
his men, he subsequently carried them back to Eng- 
land, where, by his glowing description of the coun- 
try and his personal exertions, he was instrumental 
in the procurement of the great Virginia patent of 
1606. 

Fourth, That the scheme of a plantation at Saga- 
dahoc originated with the kidnapping of Indians 



15 

from that neighborhood by Weymouth in 1605 ; three 
of whom came into the possession of Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, the projector of the plan, who says it was 
suggested by information derived from these natives. 
Chief-Justice Popham, the patron of the undertaking, 
was reported to be " the first person who invented 
the plan of sending convicts to the plantations," — 
which is not precisely true, for the French colonists, 
under La Hoche and De Monts, had been chiefly 
composed of convicts from the prisons. But it is 
said of Popham, that "he not only punished male- 
factors, but provided for them ; and first set up the 
discovery of JSfeio England to maintain and employ 
those that could not live honestly in the OlcV Sir 
William Alexander, a contemporary witness, testifies 
that Sir John Popham " sent out the first company 
that went of purpose to inhabit there, near to Sagada- 
hoc : but those that went thither being pressed to that 
enterprise as endangered by the law, or for their own 
necessities, — no enforced thing being pleasant, — they, 
after a winter s stay, dreaming to themselves of new 
hopes at home, returned back with the first occasion ; 
and, to justify the suddennesse of their returne, they 
did coyne many excuses, burdening the bounds where 
they had becne with all the aspersions they could 
possibly devise ; seeking by that meanes to discourage 
all others."* 

* The orator at the Maine celebration quotes from Sir WlUiam Alexander 
the statement, that " Sir John Popham sent out the first company that went 



16 

Fifths That this company, of one hundred landmen 
or colonists according to Gorges, so constituted, had 
with them several men of standing, as leaders. In- 
deed, such was the case with every similar enterprise 
at that period ; and especially just then, when the 
termination of war with Spain threw large num- 
bers of land and sea- officers out of employment. 
They selected a place near the mouth of the Kenne- 
bec or Sagadahoc, as it was then called, where they 
built a fort or stockade, and storehouses and habita- 
tions. More than half of the company are said to 
have gone back with the ships in December. The 
residue, forty-five in number, remained till spring ; 
when, having lost their leader, having quarrelled with 
the Indians, and had their storehouses burned, they 
took the first opportunity to leave the country, and 
gave it so bad a name as to discourage all further 
attempts at settlement. The business of fishing and 
traffic with the natives, which had existed on the coasts 
for nearly a century, was continued, with only such 
casual occupation of the land as that business re- 



of purpose to inhabit there, near to Sagadahoc," but carefully suppresses the 
remainder of the passage. 

Another remarkable suppression in the " Memorial Volume " is that of the 
speech of our associate, J. W. Thornton, Esq., made by invitation in reply to 
a toast at the table. Mr. Thornton's views of the Maine Colony, and the 
characters of Gorges and Chief-Justice Popham, were not satisfactory to the 
Committee having charge of the celebration, and were therefore omitted from 
their narrative of the proceedings. The speech has since been published by 
the author, with copious and learned notes, sustaining his positions, and full 
of minute and curious information relating to colonial history. 



17 

quired. * Captain John Smith relates, that, when 
(about 1614) he went first to the part of the country 
where this colony had been planted, there was not one 
Christian in all the land ; and yet Newfoundland at 
that time freighted annually near eight hundred ships 
with fish. The very place where Popham's company 
passed the winter was forgotten, and was a subject of 
conjecture and controversy until 1849, when the 
Hakluyt Society of England published, from a newly 
discovered manuscript, " The Historic of Travaile into 
Virginia Britannia," by William Strachey, who had 
been employed as Secretary in the Southern Colony. 

That history contains the only particular account 
of the expedition of Popham's company, and fixes the 
spot where they passed the winter. It has not a 
word about any ceremonies used to signify taking 
possession of the country ; not a word about Episco- 
pal services, or the reading of prayers, or liturgy, or 
any ritual of the Church, even at the burial of their 
chief. The writer was led to speak of the enterprise, 
" since it had its end so untimely," and since the order 
and method of a full history did claim of him " the 
remembrance of the most material points at least, as 
well of this late Northern Colony, as of the first planted 
more south." He closes his narrative by saying. 



* There is an effort in the " Memorial Volume " to make it appear proba- 
ble that a portion of Popham's men remained in tlie coxmtry. It woukl not 
have been strange, if some of them had fomid employment among the fisliing 
vessels ; but Strachey says they all embarked for home. 



18 

" And this was the end of that Northern Colony upon 
the river Sagadahoc." 

If the discovery by the Cabots, and the elaborate 
acts of occupation and jurisdiction by Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, as the direct representative of his sovereign, 
— subsequently enforced and sustained, — created no 
permanent rights ; if the colonies of Raleigh, the last 
of which, if it perished, at least left its bones on the 
soil, planted no durable claims ; if Gosnold, who was 
not only the first Englishman, but the first European, 
who is known to have set up a dwelling on the soil 
of New England ; who had been sent by the Earl of 
Southampton for the purpose of continuing Raleigh's 
plans of colonization ; who gave, names to islands and 
capes on our coast, which they still retain ; whose 
particular narratives, thrice told, revived the sinking 
hopes of the friends of colonization, and whose per- 
sonal efforts brought about the great revival of such 
enterprises in 1606, — if all these gave no valid pos- 
session to the British crown, how can this evanescent 
company of Sagadahoc, with all its failures and all its 
injurious influence, be said to have " established the 
title of England to the continent " ? It did not even 
establish itself, or leave a distinguishable memorial 
behind it. What could there be in the charter of 
1606 to give to feebler demonstrations an efiiciency 
which equally solemn grants from the same source 
did not impart to greater and more persistent pro- 
cedures ] 



19 

The orator of the day, towards the close of his 
address, thought proper to aUude to Massachusetts m 
a manner that explams the somewhat ambiguous toast 
which has ah-eady been quoted. He says, — 

" We must not forget our obligations to Massachu- 
setts and the early settlers of Plymouth for their 
share in conquering the continent for our race, 
though dealing harshly with Maine. Those Massa- 
chusetts Puritans of the Saxon type, inheriting all the 
gloomy errors of a cruel and bloody period under 
the iron rule of the Tudors, were ready to demand of 
Elizabeth the enforcement of the Act of Uniformity 
against the Papists, but refused obedience to it them- 
selves." 

Among similar passages, he declares, " They mis- 
took their hatred of others for hatred of sin. 
They set up their own morbid convictions as the 
standard of right." — " Once planted on the shores of 
New England, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay en- 
deavored to exterminate every thing that stood in the 
way of their ambition," &c., &c. 

Accompanying the records of the Popham celebra- 
tion is a lecture, by the author of the address, on the 
claims of Sir Ferdinando Gorges as the Father of 
English Colonization in America. This had previously 
been delivered before the Historical Societies of Maine 
and New York, and now makes a part of the 
" Memorial Volume." 

A large portion of the lecture is in a strain 



20 

resembling that of the extracts taken from the ad- 
dress, but more acrid and bitter. 

" It is time," the author thinks, " to vindicate the 
truth of history; to do justice to the claims of Gorges, 
and to repel the calumnious charges of the men who 
founded the theocracy of New-England; who per- 
secuted alike Quakers, Baptists, and Churchmen." 
" Within the boundaries of the Colony of Massachu- 
setts Bay, from the time they first landed till the 
arrival of Sir Edmund Andros, as Governor, in 1686, 
the Government of Massachusetts Bay was more 
arbitrary and intolerant than any despotism from 
which they fled from England." — " The modern 
popular history of New England has sought to conceal 
the exact truth, and to throw apology over the 
greatest offences." — "We find the Massachusetts Pu- 
ritans persecutors from the outset of their career ; 
denying the rights of citizenship to all but actual 
church members, and refusing others protection even 
against the Indians." Mr. Webster's great speech at 
Plymouth, in 1820, he calls an Epic Poem, in which 
the truth of severe history has been overlooked in 
admhation of the creations of his genius. Mr. 
Everett follows the authority of Mr. Webster; and 
" modern historians have since then taken these flights 
of poetic fancy for historic verities, and sought to 
elevate them into the dignity of history. They might 
as well insist, that a modern Fourth-of-July oration 
was the cause of the Ilcvolutionary War, though 



21 

littered some years after that event had taken place. 
Regarded as a poUtical event, the Plymoiitli settle- 
ment was not of the slightest consequence or impor- 
tance. It neither aided nor retarded the settlement 
of the country." 

These are all the specimens for which time or 
space can now be afforded, though they inadequately 
represent the tone and spirit of the lecture. We 
may be permitted to present, by way of rejoinder, a 
few "historic verities," which could easily be sus- 
tained by proof. 

First, It is fortunate for Maine, and for the coun- 
try, that New England was not peopled by the convict 
and mercenary gangs of Gorges. It would have been 
w^ell, also, perhaps, if the Pilgrims had remained a 
year or two longer in Holland. For the colony at 
Jamestown, composed of like unsound materials, was 
apparently near its end, perishing from its inherent 
vices, and might have been re-established by better 
men, under better auspices. Gorges himself discloses 
the fact of his own utter discouragement. But the 
proposed embarkation of the Pilgrims changed all 
that, and infused new life into the dying hopes of 
speculators in the anticipated resources of the New 
World. Gorges eagerly seized the opportunity of 
planting permanent occupants on the soil ; which, he 
tells us, all his efforts had failed to accomplish. He 
favored the plans of the emigrants to Plymouth, and 

4 



22 

of the company of Massachusetts Bay, until he found 
that they would not be made to subserve his private 
and selfish purposes, when he turned against them, 
and sought to deprive them of their rights and privi- 
leges. 

Second, The arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth 
was the transfer to this country of an actual com- 
munity, possessing all the important relations of do- 
mestic life. It was like transplanting a tree with 
roots already formed, and tendrils already grown, to 
take hold of the new soil, and maintain vitality, even 
if all above them perished. Hence neither suffering 
nor death could break up the colony, because here 
was its home, and it had no other. 

The Massachusetts Company was a body politic. 
Having brought its charter, it became a State or Com- 
monwealth, dependent on no corporation or council 
on the other side .of the ocean, but sufficient of itself 
for all the purposes of human society. It proceeded 
immediately to build up towns and municipalities 
after the hereditary patterns of the mother-country ; 
to organize government and the administration of law 
and justice in all the customary branches ; to estab- 
lish commerce ; to found seats of learning, and create 
an army of drilled and disciplined soldiers. It was 
an integral portion of England that was thus removed 
to America, comprising some of its most learned 
scholars and ablest divines ; some of its wisest and 
shrewdest politicians ; some of its most sagacious 



23 

merchants ; and some well skilled in the arts of war. 
So rapid and substantial was the progress in the first 
seven years of occupation, that the jealousy of Eng- 
land was excited, and emigration was restrained. For, 
says Gorges, " it was doubted that they would in a 
short time wholly shake off the royal jurisdiction of 
the sovereign magistrate." It was at this period that 
the General Court of Massachusetts passed an order, 
that none should be received to inhabit within its 
jurisdiction, without liberty from one of the standing 
council, or two other assistants. " They were of 
opinion," says Holmes, " that their Commonwealth 
was established by free consent ; that the place of 
their habitation was their own ; that no man had a 
right to enter their society without their permission ; 
that they had the full and absolute power of govern- 
ing all people by men chosen from among themselves, 
and according to such laws as they should see fit to 
make, not repugnant to the laws of England." They 
were able, a very few years later, to furnish statesmen, 
warriors, and preachers, who contributed materially 
to the conversion of the English Government into a 
Commonwealth. 

Thus were first fulfilled, beyond the chances of 
controversy, the conditions of the doctrine laid down 
in the " Memorial Volume," that prescription with- 
out occupation was of no avail, and that possession 
of the country was essential to the maintenance of 
title. The success of Massachusetts made possible 



24 

the possession and settlement of other portions of the 
northern continent. Her vigor encouraged, and her 
commercial intercourse animated, every other colony. 
Without her protection, even in later times, every 
plantation in Maine would probably have been de- 
stroyed by the Indians, certainly would have been 
overwhelmed by the French ; and even the older set- 
tlements of Virginia apparently owed their continued 
existence to the prosperity of New England. Nor 
would the stronger company of Massachusetts Bay 
have come into existence except for the pioneer 
enterprise of the Pilgrims. 

Third, No sooner had Plymouth and Massachu- 
setts established the practicability of living and thriv- 
mg in New England, than, in addition to the lawless 
adventurers who already frequented the coasts, the 
country began to swarm with outcasts of every de- 
scription. They were not unlike the miscellaneous 
characters which, in our own time, fii'st poured into 
California ; persons who, if not actually vicious, were 
of roving and restless natures, and impatient of the 
restramts of society. The religious agitations of the 
period had also set afloat other classes equally dan- 
gerous to the peace of a community : visionaries and 
fanatics of every genus, — Familists, Fifth-monarchy 
men, iVntinomians, Anabaptists, Quakers ; some of 
them under respectable names, which then covered 
entirely difl"erent pretensions and practices. There 
were men who disdained obedience to laws, or con- 



25 

formity to the ordinary rules of social life ; and women 
who thought it their duty to prophesy in public, to 
vilify the magistrates, and to parade the streets in a 
state of nudity. A nation strengthened by the growth 
of centuries might possibly withstand the influence of 
such disorganizing elements ; but, without restraints 
almost as rigorous as martial law, they would seem 
to be necessarily fatal to the safety of an infant 
colony. 

The Puritans were not fanatics, of the visionary 
kind at least, but with earnest piety mingled worldly 
wisdom. They asserted the broad distinction between 
imposing restrictions upon the liberties of established 
communities inheriting the soil from a common an- 
cestry, and defining the conditions of admission to 
their own religious and political fellowship, in a new 
land, bought with their money, planted by their toil, 
and watered with their tears. A candid and philo- 
sophical discussion of the whole subject, between 
Winthrop and Vane, has fortunately been preserved 
to us, and shows the solemn deliberation with which 
their policy was adopted.* 

Fourth^ Those practices and municipal regulations 
which are so much decried as novel persecutions, or 
as evidences of bigotry and narrow-mindedness pecu- 
liar to New England, did not originate here. They 
were not even of Puritan origin. They were trans- 

* Hutchinson's " Collection of Original Papers." 



26 

ferred from the local statute-books of their English 
homes, where they had been familiar to the people for 
generations. In many of the ancient towns of Eng- 
land, precisely similar enactments were in force. 
Persons were carted about town, and then "expulsed," 
simply for eaves-dropping. If a man spoke evil of the 
magistrates, he was to be grievously punished in his 
body ; and, if he struck the Mayor, was to lose the 
offending hand. At Leicester, one person from every 
house was required to be at every sermon. At Bos- 
ton, in 1616, all the street-doors were to be kept 
closed during divine service ; and in 1662 the council 
ordered, that every person in the borough above 
twenty-one years of age should " diligently and faith- 
fully attend divine service upon every Sunday, pv 
other days of thanksgiving and humiliation appointed 
by law." The Wardens of Childwal, in 1635, pre- 
sented individuals who absented themselves from the 
parish church, or who slept during service. At 
Liverpool, people were punished for lodging guests 
who did not go to church. At the same place, a 
minister was threatened with punishment for not cut- 
ting his hah to a seemly length ; and it was declared 
illeo-al for a bachelor to be out in the street after nine 
o'clock, P.M. At Hartlepool, any member of the cor- 
poration was fined for sitting out of his regular place 
at church. At Lancaster, strangers were prohibited 
from coming into town until they had permission from 
the ]Mayor, his brethren, and fifteen commons. At 



27 

Banbury, the people could not receive an inmate or 
under-tenant without license from the Mayor. If, 
without license, they kept a visitor thirteen days, 
they were fined forty shillings, and lost the freedom of 
the town. At Leicester, in 1564, no townsmen could 
sit and tipple at an alehouse, but must take the beer 
to their own houses. 

The Puritans of New England, to meet the exi- 
gencies of their colony, simply continued a class of 
municipal rules to which they were habituated in the 
mother -country. Perhaps they should have been 
wiser than their fathers in this respect, as they were 
in some others. Perhaps their policy was required 
by the circumstances in which they were placed. It 
would be presumptuous in us to pronounce, that a 
different course would have produced more favorable 
results. They were men of remarkable common 
sense ,^nd practical ability: as Bishop Warburton 
said, they had a genius for government They also 
believed in the necessity of law. 

One of the toasts at the Maine celebration was 
framed to compliment the " tolerant spirit " of the 
Dutch of Manhattan, as contrasted with the intolerant 
spirit of New England ; and the New-York gentle- 
man who responded in advance by letter indulged 
in a similar tone of remark. Among statements, 
not so well founded as they should be, coming from 
so respectable a source, two contiguous passages are 
selected for illustration : — 



28 



" If the pioneer settlement at New Plymouth was distinguished 
from the later colony of Massachusetts Bay by more tolerant ideas 
in civil as well as religious affairs, it may be not unjustly inferred, 
that some, at least, of that larger liberality was derived from the 
lessons of Holland." 

" Meanwhile, the Dutch colonists at Manhattan, and its neigh- 
borhood, had been calmly practising those liberal principles which 
they learned in their fatherland. There the Jesuit Father Jogues 
met Protestant exiles from the persecutions of Massachusetts, 
Lutherans from Germany, Roman Catholics and Anabaptists, all 
actually enjoying, in an equal degree Avith the original Calvinistic 
settlers, the blessings of religious liberty." 

The first book we happen to take up for Hght on 
this subject is Mr. Onderdonk's " Queen's County in 
Olden Times ; " and it does not appear from his 
minutes, that Baptists, or Quakers, or other schisma- 
tics, were treated more leniently by the Dutch, under 
similar circumstances, than they were by the Puritans 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

" lOoG. AVm. Wickendam, a cobler from Rhode Island, came 
to Flushing and began to preach, and went with the people into 
the river, and dipped them. For this he was fined £100, and 
ordered to be banished. As he was poor and had a family, the 
fine was remitted. Hallet, the sheriff, had dared to collect con- 
venticles in his house, and had permitted Wickendam to preach 
and administer the sacraments, though not called thereto by any 
ecclesiastical authority. For this he was removed from office, 
and fined £50." 

The next year, Wickendam began to preach and 
baptize again. 

" This becoming known to the Governor, the Fiscaal proceeded 
to Flushing, and brought him along. He was banished the Prov- 
ince." 



29 

" IGGl, July 4. Thos. Terry and Saml. Bearing petition for 
leave to settle seven families at Hempstead, [and] ten at Ma.tine- 
cook. Granted ; but they are to • bring iu no Quakers, or such 
like opinionists" l\ 

" 1G70. The people of Jamaica petition the Governor against 
a certain witch, Katherine Ilarison's settling there. Petition 
granted." She had been sent away from Connecticut. 

" 1674, April 18. Samuel Furman, of Oysterbay, went about 
the streets of New York making a great noise and uproar, and 
presumed to come into the Church and abuse the Avord of God, 
and blaspheme his holy name ; for which he is sentenced to be 
severely whipped with rods, banished the Province, and pay the 
costs." 

Perhaps some who have since borne the respecta- 
ble name of Furman on Long Island could have told 
us whether the blasphemy in this case differed from 
that generally charged upon religious enthusiasts of 
the ranting order, then so common and troublesome. 

" 1674, Nov. 24. Daniel Patrick and Francis Coley, of Flush- 
ing, for contemptuously working on Thanksgiving Day, and giving 
reproachful language to the magistrates that questioned them for 
it, are sent to the New York Sessions by Justice Cornell and Mr. 
Hinchman." 

" 1675. Thomas Case, while preaching at Matinecook, it< ar- 
rested by the constable of Oysterbay." 

" 1675, Oct. Mary Case is fined £5 for interrupting Mr. 
Leverich while preaching, and saying to him, 'Come down, thou 
whited wall, thou that feedest thyself, and starvest the people ! ' 
The constable led her out of the meeting. Samuel Scudder is 
fined £5, or go to jail, for sending a long and scandalous letter to 
Mr. Leverich. Francis Goely submits, and is dismissed. Eliza- 
beth Appleby disturbed the Court of Sessions, and is committed. 
Thomas Case is fined £20 for preaching and making a disturbance 
before John Brown's door at Flushinjr." 



30 

Thomas Case was a Quaker, who had some pecu- 
liar notions on the subject of marriage. Under date 
of Jan. 12, U)76, it is said, " Too many persons visit 
Thomas Case in prison. None hereafter to be admit- 
ted." He was a pestilent fellow, no doubt, yet seems 
to have been popular. 

But where are we ? Among the " tolerant " Knick- 
erbockers, or the bigoted Puritans ? Do practices 
change their nature and their name according to the 
localities in which they occur ? It has been the mis- 
fortune of the Maine celebration to involve, not only 
its managers, but some of its invited guests, in a 
singular confusion of ideas respecting " historic veri- 
ties." 

The sneers at Puritanism, so common in the South- 
ern States, may have arisen partly from jealousy, and 
partly from a natural incapacity to conceive of 
habits of life and conduct, restrained or impelled by 
abstract principles of right and duty. But the imita- 
tive echo, sometimes heard from the great commer- 
cial metropolis, when repeated in Maine, has the 
derogatory elements of ingratitude and questionable 
taste. For the people of that State are not descended 
from Popham's c«y«/iers, nor from the remains of a 
subjected colony, but are indebted to Massachusetts 
for the being of their commonwealth, and the guar- 
dianship of its defenceless years. 

In passing judgment upon the authors of great 
movements in the world's history, it is not customary 



31 

to dwell on their minor traits, even if these are faults, 
but on those characteristics which overcame obstacles 
and secured success ; and never, before or since, has 
the conquest of a country been effected with so little 
of public wrong or private injustice as that of the 
land which we inhabit, whether we regard the people 
who were dispossessed, or the invading masses who 
were to be guided and controlled. 

If in this achievement there has clearly been a 
dominant influence, it is that of the Puritans of New 
England and their descendants. Their livelier facul- 
ties have kept the phlegmatic Hollanders from dozing 
over their pipes ; the precocious West owes its sub- 
stantial vitality to their earnestness of purpose and 
practical wisdom ; and the boastful South has yielded 
to the force of their principles and their energies. 

The true Puritan may be described as ." a just man, 
tenacious of his opinions, whose steadfast mind nei- 
ther the depraved impulses of disorderly citizens, nor 
the frown of a threatening tyrant, nor Southern blus- 
ter, could shake from its purposes." 

You recognize, Mr. President, in this portrait, a 
translation, nearly literal, of the words of Horace, — 

" Justuin et teiicacem propositi viruni 
Non civium arJor i^rava jubentium, 
Non vultus instantis tyranni, 
Mente quatit solida : ueque Auster." 

The lines are almost prophetic ; and the words 
" neque Auster," which appear to have little meaning 



32 

in their original use, have, in this application, a 
striking significance. 

In the presence of such realities as Plymouth and 
Massachusetts, how worse than extravagant it seems 
to dignify the ineffectual operations of an adventurer 
like Gorges, or the ephemeral and futile visit of a 
band of outlawed men like the company of Popham, 
wdth such appellations as " The source of title to 
the continent ; " " The foundation of the colossal 
empire of the New World ; " " The great event of 
American history, giving a new direction to the his- 
tory of the world " ! * 



* These comments on the proceedings at the Popham Celebration were 
already in type before the writer liad seen the " Addiess of Mr. E. C. 
Benedict to the New- York Historical Society, Nov. 17, 1863." In that 
excellent paper, full justice is accorded to the Puritans of New England, and 
no less to the remarkable assumptions contained in the two productions of the 
Maine orator. 



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